You mean OTHER than truckloads of cold hard cash? Don't be naive, here, Warner was HD DVD exclusive before the format launched. Sony offered them incentives and a spot on the BDA board in exchange for their neutrality. One year later, they pretty much own the HD market in terms of studios marketshare, yet the market is still tiny and therefore not profitable.
A large cash infusion would EASILY offset whatever paltry amount they'd make on BR or HD DVD sales, if any. Amir pretty much confirmed that no studios are making a profit in this market yet, so it's all about investment, and if Toshiba can offer a large incentive (and make it a marketing deal like with Paramount) and then MS provides no cost VC1 encoding as well for a set period of time........it'll be tough to resist. The same can be said of a similarly large offer from Sony/BDA in terms of promotional assistance, yield subsidization, and no cost encoding like they were doing for Paramount.
Warner already refused offers, but it may be swayed by larger offers. Considering the Paramount deal, are we looking at a 350-500 million offer to WB for format exclusivity? Perhaps 18-24 months like Paramount, at which point the format war will be more clearly defined. That, plus free encoding, would make HD publishing profitable for them the same way it was made profitable for Paramount.
It is a very interesting one, though, with people in the industry in that thread hinting that they believe this rumor is true.
